tonight, breaking news as we come on the air. the bombshell verdict against alex jones, who claimed the newtown shooting was a hoax, that the parents of the children killed were paid actors. tonight, the jury deciding alex jones should pay $965 million in damages to several families, after years of jones' lies about the massacre at sandy hook elementary. 20 first graders were killed. six staffers were killed, too. lawyers had argued jones used those lies to create profits. tonight, the question, will the families see that money? is any of alex jones' millions protected? eva pilgrim reporting. also tonight, reported tornadoes as we come on the air. the warnings and watches right now. reported twisters near milwaukee. this system moving into the northeast tomorrow. washington, d.c. to

philadelphia, new york to boston. and rob marciano timing it out. the war in ukraine tonight. and you'll see the new and harrowing images right here. a family rescued from the rubble of their home following a russian missile attack. and tonight, who vladimir putin has now arrested for that bridge explosion. ian pannell in ukraine. and here in the u.s. tonight, two americans on their capture in ukraine by russian-backed forces. they describe what they say was done to them in ca whit johnson with the interview. tonight, two navy officers and a doctor reprimanded in the death of a navy s.e.a.l. trainee at the end of what's called hell week. the new report tonight revealing his cause of death and martha raddatz is here. the former rookie officer now facing felony charges tonight after shooting that teenager while eating a burger in his car outside a mcdonald's. the officer now surrendering. the teen on life support. tonight, the chilling testimony from a member of the oath keepers describing what he witnessed the night before january 6th, saying he witnessed

a hotel room near d.c. with more weapons than he had seen since he was in the military. terry moran standing by tonight. in philadelphia, three s.w.a.t. officers shot. what we've learned tonight. the nfl star now charged with assaulting an espn crew member after losing on "monday night football." there's also news tonight on the new covid booster when it comes to children. we'll have it for you. and tonight, the images just coming in. where is america's newest national monument? good evening and it's great to have you with us here on a very busy wednesday night. we'll get to those reported tornadoes and this severe weather as we come on the air tonight. this whole system then moving east. but we begin tonight with the stunning verdict against alex jones. the conspiracy theorist who claimed newtown was a hoax. that the parents of the children killed were paid actors.

tonight, he's now been ordered by a connecticut jury to pay $965 million in damages to several families who suffered from his false claims, his lies, and threats from those who listen to jones. 20 first graders and six teachers and staff were killed at sandy hook elementary. their young faces, just 6 and 7 years old, still so moving nearly ten years later now. jones took the stand in the case and made news when he said he was done apologizing. the judge had already found him liable for defamation. it was the jury in charge of determining the damages. today, we witnessed the tearful scene in court. after years of lies and threats, family members openly weeping. so, the question tonight, will those families see any of this money? abc's eva pilgrim leading us off. >> reporter: tonight, a connecticut jury punishing alex jones for years of lies with a staggering verdict, ordering the conspiracy theorist to pay nearly a billion dollars in dames to the milies of sandy hook victims. as the verdict was read, some of

them in the courtroom, like robbie parker, weeping. >> what we were able to accomplish was just to simply tell the truth. and it shouldn't be this hard. and it shouldn't be this scary. but while the truth is being said in the courtroom, he was standing right here lying. >> reporter: lawyers for the families showing how just hours after the massacre that left 20 first graders and six staffers dead, the infowars host claimed it was all a hoax, and the grieving parents -- actors. jones mocking them on his show. >> doing classic acting training, where he's laughing and joking and they say, hey, we're live, and he goes, oh -- >> reporter: in gut-wrenching detail, eight families and an fbi agent recounting nearly ten years of abuse, death threats from jones' followers. parker, who lost his 6-year-old daughter emilie, testifying about how he was verbally attacked by a man on the street. >> and he had so much venom and so much hatred for who he

thought that i was. >> reporter: even as the parker family prepared to lay emilie to rest, they worried about the threats. mom alissa hiding in a closet near the coffin. >> what if someone came into her funeral? what if people started yelling? or protesting and came inside? every little thing we did, i was paranoid. >> reporter: in the courtroom, alex jones forced to face those families. >> you put a target on his back just like you did every single parent and loved one sitting here, didn't you? >> no i didn't. >> reporter: today's verdict comes just two months after a texas jury awarded another sandy hook family nearly $50 million in damages. in this trial, jones was defiant, telling the court he was done apologizing. >> i've already apologized to the parents, over and over again. i don't apologize to you. i don't apologize to you. >> objection! >> reporter: lawyers for the families argued jones built a lie machine for profit and needs to be stopped. >> ten years since these families lost their loved ones,

and even now -- even now, he's still doing it. >> reporter: jones has filed for bankruptcy, claiming he has no money. last year, he was found liable in four defamation cases. and lawyers for the families say he has recently moved $62 million out of his accounts to hide his assets. >> assuming this verdict is upheld, he's not going to be able to keep having the everyday items a wealthy person like alex jones has. everything could be subject to this judgment. and so, as a result, he's going to have to portray himself as totally broke. and that's not that easy to do. >> reporter: tonight, the families say the verdict sends a clear message. >> the truth matters. and those who profit off of other people's pain and trauma will pay for what they've done. >> this has been quite the ten-year journey for all of these families.

eva pilgrim with us tonight. we heard from dan abrams there, he believes the personal wealth of alex jones is not protected in this case. and there is still yet another defamation case coming? >> reporter: that's right, david. this is not over for alex jones. he's already been foul liable in these cases and he will soon face a new trial in texas in a lawsuit brought by the parents of another sandy hook victim. david? >> eva pilgrim leading us off here tonight. eva, thank you. we turn next tonight to those reported tornadoes as we come on, and the severe weather moving into the northeast this time tomorrow. washington, d.c. to philadelphia, new york right up to boston. all part of the same system, the winds spinning up lake geneva, wisconsin. there had been tornado warnings in milwaukee and kenosha counties. reported tornadoes on the ground near milwaukee today. and a line of storms moving across central arkansas. lightning and hail there. this heavy rain and the flood risk on the way for the northeast. senior meteorologist rob marciano tracking it all for us. hey, rob. >> reporter: hi, david. you know, as we get deeper into fall, these fronts, these jet stream energy all only gets stronger, which means more severe weather and tornadoes.

those six reported tornadoes in southern wisconsin today, from waukesha to milwaukee, not a lot of damage and no injuries, but we have to watch that line as it moves across the great lakes. the energy now expanding into the mid-south. arkansas, northern mississippi, into the tennessee valley. nashville, you've gotten it. this will kind of congeal and get its way into the northeast tomorrow. i-95 is going to get clobbered starting around 3:00, through new york city, 7:00, 8:00. then lingering into new england through the morning hours on friday, so, that's where we expect to see some flooding. providence, you might get it again. david? >> certainly a mess of an evening commute this time tomorrow night. rob, we'll be watching, and our thanks to you. we turn now to the news tonight in the war in ukraine. who vladimir putin has arrested for the explosion of that key bridge linking russia to crimea. several russians among those under arrest. and tonight, air raid sirens sounding across the country for a third straight day now. the devastating images right here tonight. a family rescued from the rubble of their home destroyed in a russian attack. first, you can see the little

girl pulled out, then her mother and her father. and back here in the u.s. tonight, our interview here with two americans on their capture in ukraine by russian-backed forces. what they say was done to them during their 104 days in captivity. here's our chief foreign correspondent ian pannell from ukraine again tonight. >> reporter: tonight, dramatic images showing a family being rescued from under the rubble of their home in the southern city of zaporizhzhia. a young girl squeezing through a small opening from the basement, followed by her mom and dad. it follows days of relentless russian attacks in the city and across ukraine. putin's retaliation for an attack on a critical bridge connecting russia to crimea. moscow today announcing the arrest of eight people in connection with that blast, five of them russians, who are suspected to have helped plan the attack. and tonight, the u.s. state department confirming to abc news there's another american

citizen killed fighting for ukraine. dane partridge of idaho reportedly died in the eastern donbas region. more than a half dozen americans are believed to have been killed since the russian invasion, despite being warned by the u.s. government not to go. two u.s. volunteers who fought with the ukrainian military and were captured by the russians are back in alabama tonight and speaking out. our whit johnson sat down with alex drueke and andy tai huynh for an interview that will air on "gma" tomorrow. they say their 104 days in captivity were terrifying. >> it's not just physical torture. there was a lot of mental torture, i mean, we were -- we were sleep deprived, we were purposefully dehydrated. we were put in a lot of stress positions that honestly some of those are worse than the punches. >> we prayed for death. we just wanted to die. we just wanted it to end. >> the americans describing their time in captivity, being held by the russian-backed forces.

ian pannell reporting in from kharkiv tonight. and ian, there had been some questions about president biden and vladimir putin, given the fact that the two of them will soon be in the same place, but tonight, the white house is now insisting that president biden will not be meeting with putin at the g20 summit in indonesia next month? >> reporter: yeah, i think an important clarification. president biden had suggested that he might be amenable to talk to vladimir putin, perhaps about the release of wnba star brittney griner, but tonight, the white house making a very important clarification, saying the president has absolutely no intention of meeting vladimir putin. david? >> all right, ian pannell, our thanks to you and to whit johnson tonight. and by the way, whit will have much more of his interview with those americans who were captured, that's tomorrow right here on "good morning america." in the meantime tonight, the u.s. navy punishing two officers and a doctor after the death of a navy s.e.a.l. trainee, just hours after completing what's known as hell week, that grueling training. 24-year-old kyle mullen collapsed and died back in

february. and tonight, the new report here the navy on how he died. here's martha raddatz. >> reporter: tonight, the navy has confirmed what kyle mullen's family said they knew all along. there was no misconduct on the part of their s.e.a.l. recruit son, no drugs were found in his system. the 320-page report concluding that mullen died of pneumonia in the line of duty. a navy official saying "performance enhancing drugs were not a contributing cause of mullen's death." >> no mother should feel my pain that i have right now. my son is dead and never coming back. >> reporter: mullen, a talented athlete and scholar, died hours after successfully completing the navy s.e.a.l.'s grueling hell week back in february. fellow s.e.a.l. candidates told investigators that mullen, who had been given oxygen during the training, was barely coherent,

gasping for air, was coughing up large amounts of brown fluid into a bottle, was so super swollen he looked like the michelin man, and was, at times, completely disoriented. and yet, a candidate who said he tried to help mullen during training said he was rebuffed. and once they were released to barracks after surviving hell week, there was no medical personnel round. >> they had opportunities to save my son, and he's dead because they didn't treat him. >> reporter: the navy has issued nonpunitive letters to a doctor at the training facility and two top s.e.a.l. training officers, but they have not been removed from duty. this is not over, however. the training command is taking a broader look into the entire s.e.a.l. training program, what the culture is like, and whether it simply goes too far. david? >> martha raddatz back on this case tonight. thank you, martha. next tonight here, to texas, and the former rookie police officer in san antonio who is now facing felony charges tonight for shooting that teenager who was eating a burger inside his car outside a mcdonald's.

that difficult body cam video showing former officer james brennand opening the driver side door, opening fire, critically wounding 17-year-old eric cantu. that teenager is now on life support. the former officer turning himself into police overnight. he's now out on bail. the police union saying it will not defend him. we turn now tonight to the crucial midterm elections, your voice, your vote. 27 days left to go, and as we've been reporting here, just a handful of key senate races will determine who wins control of the senate. last night here, we reported on georgia. tonight, our team in ohio, where the republican j.d. vance is trying to tie the democrat to president biden. and where the democrat tim ryan is trying to tie the republican to donald trump. and there were fireworks over this. tonight, early voting now under way there and rachel scott from ohio. >> reporter: today in columbus, ohioans lining up to cast their ballots before the doors even opened. >> we're open. come on in. >> reporter: early voting now officially under way. for voters like christine ivory, a mother of two, there's only

one issue that matters. >> the economy, yes. i would say the economy, because it's very expensive. >> reporter: in the razor-tight senate race, the economy taking center stage. republican candidate venture capitalist j.d. vance trying to tie his opponent, congressman tim ryan, to president biden. >> people deserve to go to the grocery store without it completely breaking the bank. tim ryan has voted with these policies 100% of the time. every single time he gets an opportunity to stand up for ohioans, he chooses to bend the knee to his own party. >> reporter: but in that first senate debate, ryan distanced himself from a president who is not popular here. >> do you want president biden to run again in 2024? >> no. i've been very clear i'd like to see a generational change. mitch mcconnell, donald trump, the president, everybody. >> reporter: as vance tries to tie ryan to biden, ryan is tying vance to donald trump, whose endorsement helped vance win the republican nomination. >> j.d. is kissing my ass, he wants my support so much. >> reporter: ryan seizing on

that moment. >> i don't kiss anyone's ass like him. ohio needs an ass kicker, not an ass kisser. >> reporter: for voters like barb sanders, a nurse, vance's association with trump is a dealbreaker. we asked her which issue she cares about most. >> saving democracy. >> do you think j.d. vance would be a threat to democracy? >> yes. he is under the thumb of republican power. >> reporter: but michele upton, a financial advisor, says she's voting fors vance, quote, to get the nation back on track. >> this is not the country that we grew up in or expected to live in or expected to raise our children in. there's just something terribly wrong, and i want it fixed. >> all right, rachel scott live in columbus. she's there with our incredible team of political imbeds, out talking with the voters. rachel, we know early voting under way, less than a month to go. bottom line, where does this very close race stand tonight? >> reporter: and david, it is one of the closest races in the country. polls show that these candidates are within one point of each other.

and our fivethirtyeight analysis shows that if tim ryan pulls this off, democrats have a 94% chance of holding onto the senate, david. >> all right, rachel scott, we'll be covering all these races right to election day right here with you. thank you. we're going to turn now to the eye-opening testimony today from a former member of the oath keepers. it played out in the trial of five members of the oath keepers charged with seditious conspiracy in the january 6th attack. tonight, that former member testifying about what he saw the night before january 6th. let's get right to our senior national correspondent terry moran with us live tonight. terry this was testimony about what he saw in a d.c. area hotel room in nearby virginia that night? >> reporter: that's right, david. terry cummings is a former member of the oath keepers, and he testified for the prosecution, describing in detail for the jury this huge cache of weapons he saw stashed in a hotel room just across the potomac river in northern virginia the night before the

attack on the capitol. cummings said he had never seen anything like this. he told the jurors, quote, i had not seen that many weapons in one location since i had served in the military. he was awed by the stockpile. the oath keepers called that location their qrf, quick reaction force, and prosecutors say it was a key element in their plot to stop joe biden from being president, even, if necessary, by force. so, prosecutors have said that they were trying to overthrow the government, that's the seditious conspiracy charge. the defense says there's nothing illegal in this country about stashing weapons in a hotel room. and that these defendants did not plan to overthrow the government. david? >> terry moran on the oath keepers trial tonight. terry, thank you. we should also mention this evening, we will be covering the january 6th committee hearing tomorrow, live right here on abc. our live coverage of what could be the committee's final public hearing, that's tomorrow with our team right here, 1:00 p.m. eastern, 10:00 a.m. pacific, right here on abc. in the meantime, when we come back here tonight, three s.w.a.t. officers shot in philadelphia, what we've now learned. and tonight, the nfl star charged with assault after what he did after losing on "monday night football," and you'll see it here.

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tonight in philadelphia, three s.w.a.t. officers have been shot and wounded. gunfire erupted early today as those officers were serving an arrest warrant for a murder suspect. s.w.a.t. members were shot as they forced their way inside the home. the suspect was shot and killed. one officer remains hospitalized tonight. all three officers expected to recover. tonight, nfl star davante adams has been charged with assault. he is accused of shoving this espn photographer to the ground there after losing to the chiefs on "monday night football." adams apologizing, saying he felt horrible immediately after. he still faces possible punishment from the nfl. when we come back here tonight, news on covid boosters in this country. and where is the newest national monument tonight? your mission: stand up to moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis or active psoriatic arthritis and... take. it. on. with rinvoq. rinvoq is a once-daily pill that tackles pain, stiffness, swelling. for some, rinvoq significantly reduces ra and psa fatigue.

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news i-team wraps up ahese toni7 three-night series despite calls to defund the police. see how much more money local departments are actually getting to set that they were shooting threat. for daughter is one of thousands of students in the bay area and at schools who got that message and it turned out to be a hoax. now over four million fentanyl pills were seized in california will tell you why a drug advocate says this crackdown is long overdue abc 7 news at 6 starts right now. building a better bay area moving forward finding solutions. this is abc 7 news. tonight the abc 7 news i-team is following the funding. good evening. i'm amidates and i'm dan ashley for years. we've seen widespread calls to defund the police and bold promises from politicians to do just that but that wasn't the reality in the bay area and across most of the country so far this week, we've delved into

the finances of the oakland police department and the san jose police department tonight. we turn to san francisco. yeah, i-team reporter stephanie. sierra is digging through all of the data. her investigation is one you'll see only on seven stephanie. yes, dan, and i'm a police funding increased across most of the bay area since 2019 and this week. we've looked into oakland san jose and now we're digging into san francisco where police reported the smallest budget increase out of all three cities and tonight. we'll tell you why. from coast to coast we heard the same story. san francisco mayor london breed was one of the first politicians to speak out we chose to change how this city and how this country treats our young black men in july 2020 breed announced 120 million dollars would be cut from the san francisco police and sheriff's departments to reinvest in programs that help black and brown